Cancel Munawar Faruqui’s show in Delhi, Vishwa Hindu Parishad writes to police
The outfit claimed that the comedian’s shows are ‘anti-Hindu’ and would create communal tension in the national capital.
The Vishwa Hindu Parishad on Thursday wrote a letter to the Delhi Police to cancel a show of comedian Munawar Faruqui that is scheduled to take place in the city on August 28, ANI reported.
The outfit, along with the Bajrang Dal, also warned of protests if the police failed to cancel the show.
“This individual mocks Hindu gods and goddesses in his show,” said a letter signed by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad’s Delhi President Surendra Kumar Gupta. “As a result of this, communal tensions were triggered in Bhagya Nagar [Hyderabad].”
VHP writes a letter to Delhi Police seeking the cancellation of Munawar Faruqui's show that is to be held in Delhi on August 28, further saying that workers of VHP & Bajrang Dal will hold a protest against the show otherwise pic.twitter.com/sN1Ir0K4zS
— ANI (@ANI) August 25, 2022
Large-scale protests erupted in Hyderabad on Monday after now-suspended Bharatiya Janata Party leader T Raja Singh uploaded a video on YouTube, in which he repeated suspended BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma’s disparaging remarks about Prophet Muhammad.
Singh, who was detained on Thursday, claimed that he had posted a comedy video in reaction to Faruqui’s show held in Hyderabad on August 20.
On August 19, a show of Faruqui was cancelled at the last minute in Bengaluru after a Hindutva outfit named Jai Shri Ram Sena had filed a complaint against the comedian and the organisers of the event.
The Bengaluru Police claimed that the show was cancelled as the organisers had not sought permission.
On Thursday, Vishwa Hindu Parishad spokesperson Vinod Bansal alleged that Farqui’s “anti-Hindu” show in Delhi will create communal tension.
“We want peace in the city,” Bansal told The Indian Express. “We don’t want him to mock our Hindu deities.”
Meanwhile, the Delhi Police said they have not received any complaints about the show. Faruqui’s team also said they are not aware of any such notice by the outfit or the show being cancelled.
Over the last year, Faruqui’s shows have been cancelled in Bengaluru, Gurugram, Raipur, Surat, Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Goa and Mumbai.
In January last year, Faruqui had been arrested from a venue in Indore based on a complaint filed by the son of a Bharatiya Janata Party leader about a purported joke that he had not even made. The complainant had alleged that the comedian was going to make objectionable statements about Hindu deities during the show.
The comedian spent 37 days in jail before the Supreme Court granted him bail.
